Halfway to the NACC Finals!

We’ve officially reached the midpoint of the North American Collegiate Championship qualifiers! Two teams from each region (8 total) have already qualified for the NACC Playoffs, and eight more are vying for qualification through TeSPA and WellPlayed’s tournaments (starting February 13th and March 5th, respectively). If you missed some of the action, Andrew Whitmore (@glyceroll) and Cameron Gilbert (@shirokaisen) have you covered with a recap.

The West: UBC takes CSL, IvyLoL. SJSU reaches playoffs via tiebreaker.

West Coast teams dominated last year’s NACC and they are looking to continue that trend going into 2015! Last year’s final four consisted of the University of Washington, UC Irvine, San Jose State University, and the University of British Columbia--all west coast teams. However, due to the structure of this year’s NACC (four teams from each region all seeded into different brackets), only one team from the West will make it to this year’s final four. That said, this region has got what it takes to dismantle the competition and push toward the NACC Finals.

The CSL West Finals pitted UBC – featuring two of last year's stars in ProofOfPayment and Daijurjur – against a revamped UC Irvine squad. UCI seized the initiative right off the bat with their top laner Princess Pony's impressive Hecarim performance getting them an early lead in the first game. Though on the verge of dropping their first game of the tournament, UBC rallied back in the late game to defend their perfect record: taking the first game and forcing an early surrender in a dominating Game 2 performance to qualify for the NACC playoffs with a perfect record in the CSL.

UBC took home the IvyLoL West title as well, despite San Jose State topping them in the group stage. This resulted in a tiebreaker match between SJSU and UCI; UCI was a formidable opponent, but SJSU's core of talented players like ArcZSlash and ExecutionerKen drew upon their wealth of Challenger level experience to lead them to victory.

UBC at last year’s IvyLoL Championship. This year they took both CSL and IvyLol’s Western qualifiers, forcing a tiebreaker.

The East: McMaster University wins CSL, UConn escapes IvyLoL.

Though the West has long been the most competitively successful NACC region, the East is definitely the most populous. Its high density of colleges throughout New England, New York, and Eastern Canada make it the largest division of CSL, forcing a playoff of 24 teams rather than the usual 16. Unlike the other regions, not a single team came out of the East unscathed, which made for an interesting and unpredictable qualifier.

By the end of the group stages, however, one school was the clear favorite. McMaster University from Ontario, Canada, dropped a single set throughout the entirety of CSL. Their streak continued into the CSL East Playoffs, where they avenged an earlier loss to Ryerson University and crushed Cornell to reach the NACC Playoffs.

From 5th place overall in the IvyLol qualifiers, the University of Connecticut, had to claw their way out from the bottom of the bracket and fight tooth and nail for their qualifier spot. Though they ultimately fell to McMaster in the CSL East playoff, they nonetheless proved their worthiness by taking home the IvyLoL East title and a playoff berth in the NACC. Though less flashy than their counterparts, when it comes time for the main event, the beasts from the east are not to be taken lightly.

The North: RMU rolls through CSL, Michigan advances through IvyLoL

Both Robert Morris University and the University of Michigan destroyed their brackets and rose up to the top without a problem. Michigan won the IvyLol North and RMU took the CSL North undefeated to advance to the playoffs.

RMU is already well known for their effort to produce top tier talent and they’re continuing that tradition by going undefeated throughout the entirety of CSL North. There’s no real hard carry on the team - every player pulls their own weight and the kills are generally spread evenly across the board. The only caveat to their raw power is that we’ve never really seen RMU in the later stages of the game, as every game has been an early surrender from the opposing team. RMU is the team to beat in the North, and we will see if they can keep it up throughout the remainder of NACC.

The University of Michigan, though less well known than their RMU counterparts, is every bit as devastating on the rift. A near perfect CSL season (only dropping one game to University of Minnesota until the finals), combined with earning the top points in the region in the IvyLoL qualifier, means this team has the spark to take them all the way in the NACC.

The South: Texas A&M Sweeps IvyLoL, Georgia Tech surprises in CSL.

The South is the “new” frontier in terms of Collegiate teams, and so far, every team is on equal footing in regards to overall skill and teamwork. But there is a lot of potential here with some of the most promising teams in the country coming from the southern quarter of the United States, including Texas A&M and Georgia Tech.

Texas A&M has the infrastructure, players, and talent to take over the NACC. Though they didn’t participate in the CSL South, they dominated IvyLoL and left a wake of destruction behind them that has cemented them as one of the best teams in the country. A&M swept the IvyLoL South Finals 2-0 against University of Texas Arlington and didn’t even break a sweat.

Georgia Tech took everyone by surprise as they came out dominating their matches 2-0 against UTA. Their second match showed off their communication skills in particular, as they came back from a significant early game disadvantage by cleanly and decisively controlling objectives and choosing fights, rendering UTA unable to press their advantage. Look for both of these teams to cause trouble in the NACC Playoffs in April.

Georgia Tech: Chris "Yook" Hauser, Allen "xFSN Saber" Chen, Ji "AZNDEVIL" Moon, Jack "Jacka" Gao, and Robert "Sunar" Sun.

Don’t forget that it’s not too late to participate in the 2015 NACC! Registration for the last chance qualifier opens next Monday, February 23rd, at WellPlayed.org.

Rally your friends, register a team, and you could be joining these 8 teams to compete for a chance to play in the NACC Finals in Los Angeles!